My uncle used to be in charge of the fire services in a mostly rural, sparsely populated county in a Western state. They bought their equipment used from well-funded dense suburban departments, generally in New York or New Jersey where equipment was in almost constant use and replaced often to ensure high availability. Once in a more rural area where some equipment might go a month or more between uses, such equipment was perfectly fine. They would keep them around for 3-5 years and then sell to a fire district in an even more rural area.
So there's always equipment. Just not always someone to operate it. Especially when you'd have to pay decent wages for a crew to sit around and do nothing for days or weeks at a time, these places instead either have volunteers or part-time employees that only come to the station when called.
My uncle used to be in charge of the fire services in a mostly rural, sparsely populated county in a Western state. They bought their equipment used from well-funded dense suburban departments, generally in New York or New Jersey where equipment was in almost constant use and replaced often to ensure high availability. Once in a more rural area where some equipment might go a month or more between uses, such equipment was perfectly fine. They would keep them around for 3-5 years and then sell to a fire district in an even more rural area.
So there's always equipment. Just not always someone to operate it. Especially when you'd have to pay decent wages for a crew to sit around and do nothing for days or weeks at a time, these places instead either have volunteers or part-time employees that only come to the station when called.